THOMSON SCIENTIFIC PREDICTS NOBEL LAUREATES
Seventeen “Thomson Scientific Laureates” Recognized for Their Contributions to the Advancement of Science
Philadelphia, PA USA-London UK - September 10, 2007 — Thomson Scientific, part of The Thomson Corporation (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC) and leading provider of information solutions to the worldwide research and business communities, today announced its 2007 Thomson Scientific Laureates researchers likely to be in contention for Nobel honors in anticipation of this year’s Nobel Prize winners to be announced in October.
Each year, data from ISI Web of KnowledgeSM, a Thomson Scientific research solution, is used to quantitatively determine the most influential researchers in the Nobel categories of chemistry, economics, physiology or medicine, and physics. Because of the total citations to their works, these high-impact researchers are named Thomson Scientific Laureates and predicted to be Nobel Prize winners, either this year or in the near future. Of the 54 Thomson Scientific Laureates named since 2002, four have gone on to win Nobel honors.“Citations are an acknowledgement of intellectual debt—a direct demonstration of influence in a given subject area,” said Henry Small, chief scientist of Thomson Scientific. “Over the past 30 years, our studies have demonstrated a strong relationship between journal article citations and peer esteem. Researchers who have accumulated such credits from their peers are also often nominated for prizes and other honors, such as the Nobel Prize.”
Thomson Scientific is the only organization to use quantitative data to make annual predictions of Nobel Prize winners.
The Thomson Scientific Laureates typically rank among the top one-tenth of one percent (0.1%) of researchers in their fields, based on citations of their published papers over the last two decades.
To select the 2007 Thomson Scientific Laureates, total citation counts and number of high-impact papers in the Nobel science fields were examined. These data were applied to categories within those scientific fields considered worthy of special recognition by the Nobel Committee: physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, and economics. Based on these criteria, possible winners— leaders within a particularly noteworthy area of study within each field—were selected.
The 2007 Thomson Scientific Laureates by Nobel Prize category are as follows:
Chemistry
Samuel J. Danishefsky
Laboratory Head
Bioorganic Chemistry Laboratory
Eugene W. Kettering Chair
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
New York, N.Y., USA
Professor, Department of Chemistry
Columbia University
New York, N.Y., USA
For his pioneering work on biologically active organic compounds and the synthesis of natural products, such as epothilones, novel anti-cancer agents.
Dieter Seebach
Professor, Emeritus, Laboratory of
Organic Chemistry
Eidhenossiche Technische Hochschule
Zurich, Switzerland
For his contributions to synthetic organic chemistry, in particular the development of new methods and his and others’ many discoveries derived from them.
Barry M. Trost
Tamaki Professor of Humanities and Sciences, Department of Chemistry
Stanford University
Stanford, Calif., USA
For his wide-ranging contributions in organic, organometallic and bioorganic chemistry.
Physics
Arthur B. McDonald
Director, Sudbury Neutrino
Observatory Institute
Gordon and Patricia Gray Chair in
Particle Astrophysics
Queen’s University
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
-and-
Yoji Totsuka
Former Director-General
High Energy Accelerator Research Organization
Special University Professor, Emeritus
University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
For their leadership roles in discovering that neutrinos change types and have mass.
Sumio Iijima
Professor, Meijo University
Nagoya, Japan
Research Fellow
NEC Corporation, Ibaraki, Japan
For his pioneering work on carbon nanotubes, which has ignited a revolution in both physics and chemistry.
Martin J. Rees, F.R.S.
(Lord Rees of Ludlow)
Astronomer Royal
Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics
Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, U.K.
Master of Trinity College at the University of Cambridge
For his many contributions to cosmology, but especially for his recent studies of gamma-ray bursts.
Physiology or Medicine
R. John Ellis, F.R.S.
Professor, Emeritus
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Warwick
Warwick, U.K.
-and-
F. Ulrich Hartl
Managing Director
Max Planck Institute for
Biochemistry
Department of Cellular Biochemistry
Martinsried, Germany
-and-
Arthur Horwich
Eugene Higgins Professor of Genetics and Pediatrics at Yale University
School of Medicine
New Haven, Conn., USA
Howard Hughes Investigator
For their contributions to the understanding of the role of molecular chaperones in protein folding.
Fred H. Gage
Professor, Laboratory of Genetics
Salk Institute for Biological Studies
La Jolla, Calif., USA
For his revolutionary discoveries concerning adult neurogenesis
Joan Massague
Chairman of Cell Biology Program
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
New York, N.Y., USA
Howard Hughes Investigator
For his influential contributions to the study of transforming growth factor-beta and its role in regulating normal cell behavior, tumorigenesis and metastasis.
Economics
Elhanan Helpman
Galen L. Stone Professor of
International Trade
Harvard University
Cambridge, Mass., USA
Emeritus Professor
Department of Economics
Tel Aviv University, Israel
-and-
Gene M. Grossman
Jacob Viner Professor of
International Economics
Princeton University
Princeton, N.J., USA
Professor, Department of Economics
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and
International Affairs
Princeton, N.J., USA
For their contributions to
international trade and
economic growth.
Robert B. Wilson
Adams Distinguished Professor of Management Emeritus
Stanford Graduate School of Business
Stanford University
Stanford, Calif., USA
-and-
Paul R. Milgrom
Shirley and Leonard Ely Professor of
Humanities, Department of Economics
Stanford University
Stanford, Calif., USA
For their work, both theoretical and practical, on the mechanism of auctions.
Jean Tirole
Scientific Director, Institute of
Industrial Economics
University of Social Sciences
Toulouse, France
Affiliated research member of CERAS
Paris, France
For his research in industrial organization and regulation.
For detailed information about each of the Laureates, including information about their areas of study, visit the Thomson Scientific Laureates website at scientific.thomson.com/nobel. Visitors also may make their own Nobel Prize predictions, read about previously named Laureates and learn more about Thomson Scientific’s selection process.
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